· Flight to Abyssinia How the Negus, a Christian king, granted safe haven to the first Muslim community.

· The Sultan and The Saint The story of St Francis and Sultan Al-Kamil of Egypt against the backdrop of the crusades.

(60-minute performance, Followed by 30-minute discussion)

Eleanor Martin is a professional actress and stage director with mainstream TV and film credits and has performed as a storyteller for the past 15 years. She employs a dramatic and physical multi-character role-playing performance style that has been described by audiences as mesmerising and imaginatively and spiritually nourishing and inspiring. She is also a theatre-in-education specialist and a founding Associate Director of Khayaal Theatre Company.

Carl Taylor has utilised storytelling in communication over the last 10 years as a teacher and trainer. Regularly using his experience in communication within the charitable sector; Carl utilises creative forms of communication including storytelling and theatre, in order to help people develop confidence in telling their own stories. He seeks to help narrative art forms flourish in all kinds of arenas and to encourage new dialogues to emerge across different cultures and faiths.

Khayaal (founded 1997) is an award-winning professional theatre company dedicated to the dramatic exploration of Muslim literature and the experience of Muslims in the modern world for the stage, film, radio and education.

Over the past 20 years, Khayaal has enthralled audiences of all ages, cultures, ethnicities, and faiths numbering in the tens of thousands, both nationally and internationally.

Strengthening and enriching interfaith and intercultural relations between faiths and communities has always been central to its mission.

Khayaal works to imbue with popular currency an inclusive humanitarian dream of virtue that is accepting of and inspiring for all people.

Supported by Amal – A Said Foundation Project

Khayaal Theatre Company is to be applauded for emphasising the progressive, humanistic and tolerant aspects of Islamic culture that are, shamefully, rarely presented in the mass media.

Tom Mellen, The Morning Star on Tales from Muslim Lands

Khayaal remind us that the oral tradition is alive and kicking, and that these ancient stories can still show us how to live.

Lyn Gardner of the Guardian on Tales from Muslim Lands

The wonderful play we have just enjoyed, based on the wisdom of Jalaluddin Rumi, should remind us that it was the Sufis - the living spirit of the Islamic tradition - who preached God's mercy, His gentleness, and beauty ... I suggest that we could all, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs and even atheists, return to those texts with profit and humility.